Cudjoe Kazoola Lewis, The last known 
survivor of the Atlantic slave trade between Africa and North America, 1920's 





History of Cudjo Kazoola (Kossola) Lewis


Cudjoe Kazoola Lewis (c. 1840 – 1935), or Cudjo Lewis, was the last known survivor of the Atlantic slave trade between Africa and the United States. Together with 115 other African captives, he was brought illegally to the United States on board the ship Clotilde in 1860.[2] They were landed in the backwaters near Mobile, Alabama, and hidden from authorities. The ship was scuttled to evade discovery.

Cudjo Kazoola (Kossola) Lewis

Portrait of Cudjo Kazoola Lewis by Emma Langdon Roche, c. 1914
Born c. 1840
Banté region, Benin, West Africa[1]
Died July 17, 1935
Africatown, Mobile, Alabama
Occupation farmer, laborer, church sexton
Known for Last known survivor of the Atlantic slave trade between Africa and the United States.


After the Civil War, Lewis and other members of the Clotilde group became free and established a community at Magazine Point, north of Mobile, Alabama. Now designated as the Africatown Historic District, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.[3] In old age Lewis preserved the experiences of the Clotilde captives by providing accounts of the history of the group to visitors, including Mobile artist and author Emma Langdon Roche and author and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston.